2 Bears corners banged up before finale

Two corners banged up before the preseason finale

Thursday's joint practice with the Titans cost Chicago two cornerbacks before Saturday's game ever kicked off. Jaylon Johnson banged up his right arm on a run play during 11-on-11 work and finished the session without pads, chirping at the Titans from the sideline rather than getting back on the field, per reporting from Yahoo Sports and ClutchPoints on the practice. Tyrique Stevenson also left briefly with a leg injury after breaking up a pass in the end zone, though he returned about 13 minutes later, according to A to Z Sports. Both scares stacked on top of a defensive line already down two: Gervon Dexter Sr. (hamstring) and Austin Booker (groin) are unavailable for tonight's preseason finale, Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune reports.

Brad Biggs

@BradBiggs

Some #Bears frontline offensive players that I do not expect to play are warming up on the field - Burden, Odunze, Raymond, Swift, Loveland, Kmet. Also doing some work with the training staff is DE Austin Booker, who suffered a groin injury last week at Cincy.

None of that has softened how Ben Johnson is framing this stretch of camp. "Thursday is going to be huge for us, and Saturday is going to be huge for us as well," Johnson said this week, with cutdown day bearing down on a 90-man roster still full of calls to make. One of the harder ones is at running back, where Salvon Ahmed has rushed for 53 yards on eight carries and caught six passes for 69 yards through two preseason games — including a 49-yard touchdown screen — enough that ESPN's Courtney Cronin has projected him to push incumbent Roschon Johnson off the 53-man roster.

There was better news at receiver. Luther Burden III, working back from a groin injury, was running full routes Saturday — "maybe not 100% but he's running routes and getting in and out his breaks," Biggs reported — a sign he could be ready for the regular-season opener two weeks from tomorrow.

Last time out, the Bengals loss said more about who played than what it meant

The last time out was ugly on the scoreboard — a 27-9 loss at Cincinnati on August 22 — but a preseason score is a look at who is or isn't playing well, not a scouting report on the season. Chicago sits 1-1 in the preseason, with the Bengals game the low point so far.

08/22L@Bengals9-27

08/15WvsBrowns34-10

Cairo Santos was the steadiest thing on the field, connecting on field-goal attempts of 45, 26 and 44 yards before missing wide right from 53. Caleb Williams' look was brief, two of five passes for 28 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions, and the pass-catchers who did see the ball — Rome Odunze (one catch, 18 yards), Colston Loveland (one catch, 10 yards) and Sam Roush (two catches, 30 yards) — didn't find much room to work.

Xavier Woods' hit still hangs over Nashville

The same Thursday session that banged up two Bears corners also produced the ugliest moment of camp, and a Bears player was at the center of it. Safety Xavier Woods hit Titans receiver Wan'Dale Robinson helmet-to-helmet, and Robinson was pulled for a concussion evaluation. Titans coach Robert Saleh called it "cheap," and the play set off a run of fights for the rest of practice, as A Cheap Shot Just Complicated Your Robinson Pick detailed.

ProFootballTalk

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Robert Saleh: Wan'Dale Robinson being evaluated for concussion after "cheap" hit in Bears joint practice. t.co/o2p0r2vhPb

It overshadowed a practice that had otherwise belonged to the other sideline. Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward finished 21-of-34 across the team and 7-on-7 periods with three touchdown passes, two of them to rookie receiver Carnell Tate, who hauled in a team-high seven catches on the day, according to A to Z Sports' rundown of the joint session. It's the kind of afternoon that would have been the headline on a normal day of camp — instead it's a footnote to the hit that will follow Woods into tonight's finale.

The exhibition slate closes with the backups, not the starters

Chicago closes its preseason tonight in Tennessee, the last look before final cuts trim this 90-man group to 53. The Titans arrive unbeaten in exhibition play at 2-0 and coming off a 19-16 win over Seattle — and this is the same group that spent Thursday hanging touchdowns on the Bears secondary in practice, with Cam Ward and Carnell Tate doing most of the damage. Chicago's defense would like a cleaner answer with the pads back on, even in a game neither roster is treating like the main event.

The line opened at 1.5, with the Bears an underdog, and the total was set at 37.5 — a number that points to a low-scoring night more than it points to either team's ceiling. That tracks: with Burden, Odunze, Raymond, Swift, Loveland, Kmet, Dexter and Booker all expected to sit, both sidelines are playing out the string with reserves. Cut day, not the scoreboard, is what actually matters when this one ends.